10-Heritage – 1990
"I need to go to London again. I'm taking Harry with me. You may go visit your friends," Petunia told Dudley the next morning.
"I want to go to London too," he said.
"Duddykins, there's nothing for you in London today. I need to do some shopping that I missed yesterday and visit some banks. You'll just be bored. It would be more fun to go with your friends."
Dudley thought fast. He could do it if he really wanted. "Harry will also be bored. If I come, I can keep him company."
Petunia was suddenly unsure. She didn't want to expose her son to the magical world until there was no choice, yet he would be exposed to it by Harry's eleventh birthday anyhow, when Harry got his Hogwarts letter. Maybe it was time to put her worries aside and tell him?
"Didkins, some of the bank business concerns Harry. You know his parents died when he was just a baby, don't you?"
"Yes, in that car accident that left Harry scarred. So?"
"They may have left him some money or other properties. Maybe debts as well. Harry needs to find this out before his eleventh birthday."
"What's so special about his eleventh birthday? I'll be eleven a few weeks before him."
Petunia motioned both boys to the living room. She sat on the sofa with a boy on each side. She turned to Dudley. "Do you know why your father doesn't like Harry or his parents?"
"They are freaks, he says. I don't think Harry is a freak."
Petunia smiled internally at this little triumph. "He isn't, neither were his parents, but why does your dad think they are?"
Dudley thought for a moment. It was a long time since that "freak" subject had been mentioned. He needed to search his memory first. "There used to be some unexplainable events happening around Harry when we were smaller."
"Well, they had an explanation, but one that many people do not accept. It's called Magic."
Dudley's eyes opened wide in surprise. Petunia continued. "Just like other special talents, magical talents are quite rare. My sister had it, but no other people in our family. It is like singing talent, or painting or any other talent you may think of. They are usually rare, but it doesn't make them freaks. It makes them special."
Dudley looked a bit confused. "What talent do I have?"
Petunia smiled reassuringly despite feeling her worries rise. "We don't know yet. Some talents are evident since an early age. Others may present themselves while you grow up or even later. I didn't know I had any talent at cooking until after I got married."
Dudely's face brightened. "So, I may find my talent when I'm older."
"Quite right. Now, children with magical talents are invited to a school dedicated for that after they reach eleven. When you'll go to Smelting, Harry will go to that school."
Dudley let it sink for a bit. "Fine, so he has a talent at Magic and he'll go to another school. What does it have to do with the bank?"
Harry took over. "The whole magical world is a well-kept secret. If you look at the history of witch-hunts, you can surely understand why. Just imagine what your father would do if he found that a family of 'freaks' was settling down across the road."
Dudley grimaced at the mental image.
"Now, the bank, as well as other magical businesses is hidden from non-magical people, like us," Petunia took over. "They are not very welcoming either. If you have to wait for Harry to finish his business at the bank, you'll have absolutely nothing to do, whether I stay with you or not, and I believe it will take quite a long time."
"What will you do, then," Dudley asked his mother.
"It's quite possible I'll have to wait, just as I did yesterday. I've already taken a book to pass the time."
"Oh..." Dudley seemed to deflate.
"I'll try to find something to make up for leaving you behind," Harry promised. "I have some money in that bank and I may be able to buy something that wouldn't attract attention yet will be truly magical. I'm not sure, though."
Dudley sighed. "Well, stay safe and enjoy yourself. I'll tell nobody about this. I may go visit some friends, but most probably I'll just watch TV. Maybe I'll even read a bit. Now go! You have quite a lot to do, I understand."
Harry clapped Dudley's shoulder and smiled at him thankfully before going out. Dudley just winked back.
This time, Petunia was allowed to join Harry, at his request. Sharptooth invited them in and offered Petunia a seat, a bit farther than Harry's, before going straight to business. "Yesterday, we've only skimmed over the Potter possessions. They are your main assets, but you have some more. The Potter line has long since merged with the Peverell line. While you can't take the Potter Lordship before you reach fourteen, this does not apply to the Peverell Lordship. As soon as you are the head-of-house, you can claim the Lordship."
Harry raised a hand, stopping Sharptooth from continuing. "I've heard a lot yesterday and I'm not sure I fully understand that. You said I was emancipated and that made me the head-of-house. Can you explain?"
"Well, being emancipated means you're legally adult, despite your age. As an adult, you will be exempt from the underage restrictions on using magic, which seems to be the most important aspect for now. You may also take full control of your accounts, if you so wish, or let your guardian continue handling these for you."
"Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked.
"No. Your magical guardian is Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, who also holds quite a few other positions."
"Can I trust him, a man I've never heard of and who had never shown any interest in me since I've been sent to my aunt?"
"That's for you to decide. Let's see what he had done with your accounts during the last nine years. He passed some to his control a few months after you were orphaned." Sharptooth started browsing through the parchments on his desk. Harry wasn't sure he could decipher goblin expressions, but it looked like Sharptooth wasn't pleased.
"Well, for most of this time, he asked his own account manager to handle these, and I'm sorry to say that he didn't seem to pay it much attention. Your investments didn't grow as much as expected. What's even worse, he seems to have taken quite a bit of money out of your trust vault – the only one he could gain access to. Can any of you say that the money was used for Harry's benefit?"
"No," both Harry and Petunia answered. "None of this ever reached our account," Petunia added, "and I go very carefully over it each month."
"Well, I'll put the matter under investigation. Right now, though, Dumbledore has no longer access to any of your accounts, unless you give it to him explicitly."
Harry frowned. He still didn't know how much he owned or what exactly it meant, yet somebody was already trying to steal from him. He didn't like it.
"I assume you've got none of our quarterly or annual reports either," Sharptooth said and Harry nodded.
A moment of silence followed, broken by Harry's question. "So I know what emancipated means. Can you explain the head-of-house to me?"
"Well, Mr. Potter..."
"You may call me Harry. I'm too young to be Mr."
The goblin smiled, keeping his mouth closed. "Well, Harry, the head of the house is normally the eldest of the family, except when it is his son. Whoever holds that position has control over all the assets of the family as a whole. This may be very important for large families. It isn't much in your case, yet it allows you to wear that ring which you've taken yesterday and frees you from any contracts done for you or about you by others, as a head-of-house should be free to act as he deems right, with no contracts restraining him."
As Harry nodded understandingly, the goblin continued. "Back to our previous subject, now. When we go to the Peverell vault, you may take the Lord ring and put it on. It shouldn't find any problems, as your Potter ring has already handled them all. It would benefit you in other ways, though."
Harry looked expectantly at him.
"As a Lord, you are eligible to get your own lodging and not stay in the dorms at Hogwarts, once you go there. This doesn't mean you can't spend as much time as you like with your school friends. A lord is also not subject to the nightly curfew, so you can go around any time you please, although I wouldn't recommend wandering alone at night."
Harry thought he heard a bit of mischief in Sharptooth's tone.
"Aside from Peverell Lordship, which was expected, you also inherited the Ravenclaw vault and title, which was quite surprising. According to your ancestry test, the Evans family descended from a squib son of Rowena. The magic of the family only resurfaced with your mother, and now with you, making you the legal heir."
"What is a squib?" Petunia asked.
"That's someone from a magical family who hasn't inherited magic. Practically every magical family has a few."
"Who is Rowena Ravenclaw?" Harry asked.
Sharptooth looked at him and shook his head. "You'll have to read about her, as I can't do her justice by just telling you shortly about her, yet she is one of the most important people in the history of magical Britain."
Harry made a mental note for himself to search for books about his additional titles.
"Now, not so unexpectedly, there is another inheritance, yet one we're not sure about yet." He took the parchment used the day before and pointed at a line, "Slytherin, by conquest?"
"Why the question mark and what does it mean by conquest?" Harry asked.
"Let's start from the end. When a wizard kills another in a duel, the winner may take upon himself the title of the other and all the assets and liabilities that come with it. Under certain circumstances, it is even required that he does that. As for the question mark – the dark lord who tried to kill you as an infant was the only known descendant of Slytherin – another name you should read about. It is presumed he was killed when his spell rebounded on him, yet there was no witness and there was no body, although his robes were found on the site. We need some more investigation to decide what to do about it."
"I'm not sure I want that," Harry mumbled.
"Luckily, you don't have to decide right now, yet I would give it some deep thought, once you learn all the facts. By accepting that title, you may do some good that can't be done any other way," Sharptooth advised.
"That only leaves your last inheritance right now: Gryffindor. You should look for this name as well. There are several families known to be descendants of Gryffindor, and none could prove its ancestry until now. The Potter never even tried, yet once you've gone through the test, you've been proven to be the only living direct descendant of Gryffindor."
"So, how much is Harry's fortune worth?" Petunia asked.
Sharptooth looked pensively at her. "He can live comfortably without needing to work a single day in his life, yet this is about much more than money. You'll have to learn a bit about these family lines before you can even start to understand their importance. The least significance is that Harry now owns half of Hogwarts, maybe even three quarters, being able to influence the education of all young wizards and witches for many generations to come."
Petunia seemed unable to respond.
"We should now proceed to visit the vaults," Sharptooth said. As Petunia stood up, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Dursley, but only the owner, his spouse and his descendants can enter these vaults safely. Anybody else may suffer gravely or even die."
Petunia looked as if slapped, as she sat back down. Sharptooth seemed to understand her disappointment. "I'll order some refreshments for you and you may look through Harry's trust vault account until then. You'll see why I need to investigate."
Two hours later, when they returned to the room, Petunia was dozing on her chair, holding a pocket-size romance book, with half a cup of cold tea on the desk, in front of her. Harry was now wearing three more rings: the Peverell, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Lord rings. As each ring was also enhancing his powers, he felt really powerful magically. Luckily, he could also hide them all. They were too expensive to let random passers-by see and he felt quite awkward wearing four rings. When hidden, he didn't see them and didn't feel too awkward.